Jenny McCarthy was a very polarizing figure when she was on The View. Actually, she's just a polarizing figure in general. McCarthy's anti-vaccination stance has always landed her in hot water, and her strong opinions were only heightened when she was on the famous daytime TV show.
However, despite being one of the hosts on the iconic show, McCarthy actually seemed to hate working with Barbara Walters, or at least that's what she says in an upcoming book, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View." An excerpt of the book, which was written by reporter Ramin Setoodeh, was published in Vulture, and saw McCarthy slam the iconic Walters for her behavior.
McCarthy recalls Walters being so unpredictable, she'd have to psych herself up before going to work every day.
"Hopefully, I get the Barbara Walters who is nice," she recalls telling herself.
She also claims that Walters screamed at her.
"You know the movie Mommie Dearest? I remember as a child watching that movie and going, "˜Holy cow!' I've never seen a woman yell like that before until I worked with Barbara Walters," she admits.
McCarthy does acknowledge, though, that a lot of the attitude could have come from the fact that Walters was in the last year of her contract, and was struggling with the thought of leaving.
"Imagine a woman like Barbara Walters," McCarthy says. "It's her last year and she doesn't want to leave. Think about that. And I'm the new bitch there."
Despite Walters being an iconic journalist, she began losing touch with things happening in pop culture. Because of this, McCarthy claims, the show couldn't "do pop culture anymore because [Walters] doesn't know who the people are." It was determined that the show would take a more political tone, and that concerned McCarthy.
"I panicked because I don't consider myself a political person," she says. "Now I had to figure out, "˜Am I coming out as a Republican or a Democrat? Where do I stand on all the social issues and political issues?'"
All of this took a toll on McCarthy, and it got to the point where she was starting to lose her faith.
"I was going to work crying. I couldn't be myself," she says. "My fans were telling me, "˜Where's Jenny? They aren't letting you be you.'"
To make matters worse. McCarthy had been offered her own talk show on CBS, but instead she chose to go to The View, and it's a decision she ended up regretting.
"Every day I went home and I was miserable," she adds. "It really was the most miserable I've been on a job in my 25 years of show business. I kicked myself for not taking the CBS job, of course."
It even got to the point where Walters would make McCarthy change clothes if she felt they didn't match.
"Barbara would check out what I was wearing. If she didn't agree with it, or it didn't complement her outfit, I had to change," McCarthy said. "Mind you, she doesn't look at anyone's clothes but mine... I was a human Barbie doll."
Perhaps the most ridiculous story that McCarthy revealed was when there was a tampon floating in one of the communal toilets. Walters went ballistic on McCarthy, apparently, forcing the co-host to deal with it.
"She's standing in the hallway where the guests are, yelling at me about a tampon," McCarthy recalls. "I don't know. Maybe in her brain, she went, "˜I'm going to the youngest, newest person here, because obviously she has her period and left a tampon floating.' This is Barbara Walters. I'm not going to yell at her. So finally I said, "˜I'll take care of it. I'll take one for the team and I'll flush it.'"
McCarthy began to fear Walters on a daily basis, and even learned to recognize her footsteps.
"When I'd hear the shuffle of her feet, I knew that Barbara was after me," she recalls. "It would get faster. Oh my God "” she's coming! Based on the speed of the shuffle, I would hide or get on the phone."
It's interesting, though, at the end of the interview, McCarthy seems to dismiss all of her claims, saying Walters didn't mean anything by what she did.
"Look at what Barbara did to me. I had zero hard feelings," she says. "I loved her like a grandma. She didn't know any better."
McCarthy also took a shot at co-host Whoopi Goldberg in the new book.
"People don't understand. Whoopi can knock over anyone in a debate," McCarthy points out. "Her voice is not only strong in meaning but in sound. I was able to get a point out in three words -- like "˜I don't agree' -- and that's all I would be able to say. I would be stepped on or interrupted. She had an addiction to controlling all of it and everybody."
It's pretty safe to say this new book will be explosive, and I'm interested to see who else will have their say!
[H/T: People]